For most of its history, telecommunications was limited to the provision of a single telecommunications "application"--so-called plain old telephone service, or POTS. Within the last thirty years or so, however, a wide array of new telecommunications applications have been introduced with yet others being planned for implementation within this decade and beyond. Thus the range of current and future telecommunications applications includes not only POTS, but facsimile, cash machine and lottery telecommunications applications, access to computers, video to the home, and telephone-network-based games, as well as a variety of features that can be implemented for various of the telecommunications applications, such as call waiting, calling number ID, and speed calling.
The aforementioned and other telecommunications applications are realized by such telecommunications "services" as basic voiceband switching, packet switching, message switching, frame relay, SMDS and call switching (such as the so-called asynchronous transfer mode, or ATM).
It is a straightforward matter to provide a subscriber location with access to different telecommunications applications by assigning to that location directory numbers supported by each of a plurality of so-called intelligent network element (INE) servers capable of supporting respective telecommunications applications. The telecommunications network's numbering plan will thereby cause calls directed to those various directory numbers to be routed to the appropriate INE server and, thence, to the appropriate terminal device, e.g., POTS telephone set, cash machine, video terminal or personal computer, at the subscriber location.